Process of manufacturing axles



(No Model.)

H. AIKEN. PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING AXLES.

N0. 415,403. Patented Nov. 19, 1889.

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INVENTOR,

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mflcj ikm @7 6%A%w UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY AIKEN, OF HOMESTEAD, ASSIGNOR TO CARNEGIE, PHIPPS & COM- PANY, (LIMITED) OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING AXLES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 415,403, dated November 19, 1889.

' Application filed June 27, 1889- Serial No. 315,738. (No model.)

To all whom, it may cmwcrn: of a. length longer than that of the finished Be it known that I, HENRY AIKEN, a citizen axle by an amount sufficient to afford the neoof the United States, residing at Homestead, essary metal required in forming the larger in the countyof Allegheny and State of Pennparts of the axle, as will be hereinafter de- 55 sylvania, have invented or discovered a cerscribed. This blank, which can be produced tain new and useful Improvement in the by rolling in a suitable mill or in any other Process of Manufacturing Axles, of which suitable manner, is heated until the metal beimprovement the following is a specification. comes sufficiently plastic to permit of its be- The invention described herein relates to ing upset, and is then placed in the matrix 60 IO certain improvements in the process of manuformed in the dies 1 and 2. This matrix corfacturing axles for vehicles, such as railwayresponds to, as regards its several dimensions cars, the. Heretofore in the manufacture of and shape, the axle to be made, and at the such axles it has been customary to produce ends of said matrix are formed passages, as by rolling or hammering an ingot or billet of represented in dotted lines in Fig.1, for the 65 r 5 a sectional area somewhat greater than the movement of the upsetting-plungers 3 and t. sectional area of the largest part of the axle The dies 1 and 2 are arranged in arecess in to be produced and of such a length as will a frame 5, and are operated to and from each afford sufficient metal in the subsequent other by means of wedges G and '7, which are treatment thereof to produce an axle of the shifted longitudinally in the frame 5 by the 70 2o desired length. This billet is then reduced piston of a hydraulic cylinder 8, connected by forging to the desired dimensions and thereto by means of a cross-head 9, as shown shape, and the car-wheel seat and the journal in Fig. 1. The plungers3 and 4 are operated portion of the axle are finished in a suitable by hydraulic cylinders 10, 11, and 12, the cyllathe. This operation involves not only a inders 11 and 12 having their piston-rods con- 75 great deal of hard labor, but also the loss of neeted to a cross-head 13 at one end of the considerable time and material, and also inmachine, said cross-head having the plunger volves the frequent reheating of the billets, 4 connected thereto, and the cylinder 10 havwhich is detrimental to the metal. ing its piston connected to the plunger 3.

The object of the invention herein is to The cylinders 10,11, and 12 are so propor- 8o provide for the formation of the entire axle tioned that the power exerted by the cylinder as regards the general size and shape thereof, 10 is equal, or approximately so, to that exthe size and shape of the earseat bearing, erted by both cylinders 11 and 12, and they and 'the approximate size and shape of the are so connected to a fluid-pressure supply as journal-bearing; and to this end the invento permit of their simultaneous and equal op- 85 tion consists in the method hereinafter more eration, as will be readily understood. After fully described and claimed. the blank has been heated and placed within In the accompanying drawings, forming a the matrix of the dies the latter are closed part of this specification, Figure 1 is a plan together by means of the wedges 6 and 7. view of an apparatus adapted for the practice Fluid-pressure is then admitted into the cyl- 9o 40 of my invention. Figs. 2 and 3 are transinders 10, 11, and 12, thereby forcing the verse sections on the lineaccc, Fig. 1, the formplungers 3 and 4 inwardly and upsetting the ing-dies being shown closed in Fig. 2 and ends of the blank held within the dies, and open in Fig. Fig. l is a View in elevation causing the metal of said blank to expand of the blank in which the axle is to be formed, outwardly, completely filling the matrix and 5 and Fig. 5 is a similar view of the completed reducing the blank in length to or approxiaxle. mately to the length required in the finished In the practice of my invention I provide axle. The dies are then opened by the 0pa blankAof approximately uniform diameter eration of the wedges and the finished axle throughout its entire length,preferably equal raised from between the dies by means of I00 to or perhaps slightly less than the diameter vertically-movable rods having their ends of the smallest part of the finished axle, and suitably shaped to support the axle and work.

ing between the open dies. After the finished axle has been removed another heated blank I is placed in position in the dies, which are then closed and the blank upset, as hereinbefore described.

Itwill be readily understood by those skilled in the art that by suitably proportioning the matrices of the dies an axle having the desired shape and dimensions in the several parts whencold can be quickly and easily shaped in the manner above described.

No claim is made herein to the construction and combination of the several devices shown and described with more or less particularity, as the same, in so far as they may present patentable features, will form the subjectmatter of an application, Serial No. 294,497,

. filed December 24, 1888; nor do I wish to be understood as limiting myself in the practice of my invention to any particular form or construction of apparatus, as the several steps hereinbefore described may be effected by apparatus other than that shown and described.

The principal characteristic of this invention is the formation of a finished axle from a blank of a length greater than that of the axle to be formed by end compressiomwhereby the blank is reduced in length and enlarged laterally at its ends and portions intermediate of the ends.

Itis not necessary in the practice of my i11- vention that both ends should be operated on at the same time, it being practicable and Withinthe scope of my invention to treat, in the manner hereinbefore described, one end of the axle at a time.

I claim herein as my invention- 1. As an improvement in the art of manufacturing axles, the herein-described method, which consists in subj ectinga blank of greater length than the axle to be formed to end compression or upsetting, thereby at once both reducing the blank in length and enlarging its end or ends and intermediate portions, substantially as set forth.

2. As an improvement in the art of manufacturing axles, the method herein described, which consists in forming a blank of a uniform cross-sectional size approximately equal to the smallest sectional size of the axle to be formed-i. 6., at its middle portionand of a length greater than that required in such axle, and then by an upsetting operation reducing such blank in length and simultaneously enlarging its ends and intermediate portions to the shape and dimensions required, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

HENRY AIKEN. Witnesses:

W. B. CORWIN, DARWIN S. WVoLcoTT. 

